Secrets of the Silent Witch is my favourite anime this season, partly because I know that the light novels' content is superb. The anime has great production values, and it has a great story. That's why I give it a 9 out of 10.
That said, I'm gonna be frank about the mistakes of this adaptation. As a standalone season, it's great and worthy of this high score. But if we consider it as a potential first installment in a multi-season series, which the story rightly deserves, it faces critical issues I'll discuss at length.
Overview
Monica Everett, the Silent Witch, who is one of Ridill's 7 Sages, has been tasked to protect the Second Prince, Felix Arc Ridill. To do this, she has to go undercover, take the name of Monica Norton, and become a student of Serendia Academy. Can she fulfill her mission despite her overwhelming social anxiety?
Notes
Let's talk about the technical aspects first and the staff. When I first heard of the Silent Witch, it was called 'most anticipated' at least for Japanese viewers, and its great visuals show that the studio took care of it and gave it some love.
1a) I heard the Konosuba director also handled this, and I checked. MAL lists two directors: The chief director, Kanasaki Takaomi, and the other director, Iwamoto Yasuo.
Aside from Konosuba, Kanasaki Takaomi also storyboarded Episode 9 of Apocalypse Hotel, storyboarded Episode 8 of Gleipnir, and was a key animator for Episodes 2 and 7 of Please, Teacher — these are anime I've seen. Other well-known anime I haven't seen he is involved with include storyboarding Episodes 11 and 26 of Nisekoi S1, storyboarding Episodes 4 and 7 of Nisekoi S2, and storyboarding Episode 6 of Psycho-Pass.
If there's a person responsible for making Monica really adorable, he takes the credit. But he also takes the blame for some of the things I dislike about this anime. More on this later.
1b) The other director, Iwamoto Yasuo, also worked in Konosuba as an episode director. He also worked as episode director of the first episode of the Quintessential Quintuplets Season 1.
With how well Secrets of the Silent Witch turned out, I'm now inclined to check out Konosuba, and maybe compare. After all, it should be no surprise that their previous works served as a foundation for whatever we are enjoying with the Silent Witch.
1c) Let's talk about the chief animation director, Hirata Katsuzou. I've seen some of his older works — Tenchi Muyou! Ryououki, Shinpi no Sekai El-Hazard, Mahou Shoujo Pretty Sammy — where he worked as an in-between animator or key animator. They're okay for their time.
But his recent work, Anyway, I'm Falling in Love with You, not only failed to impress me; it utterly appalled me. It's amazing how the animation in Silent Witch is superb, while that travesty leaves you so disgusted.
1d) I haven't seen the other works of the cinematographer, Etou Naoki, and for the other cinematographer, Satou Souta, this is their debut work.
There are some moments in this anime, especially in Episode 2, where the cinematography shines. In Episode 2, the environment is unfamiliar, and it looks so daunting and huge from the perspective of Monica.
Also, Nero is framed in such a way that provides a clue for anime viewers and makes source material readers like me smile.
Spoiler, click to view
Let's talk about the story, the characters, and the execution.
Secrets of the Silent Witch is what I call 'overpowered done right.' Monica is extremely powerful yet has a great weakness that practically negates it.
The big picture view of the story is that Monica is called upon to protect Prince Felix, and as an undercover student of Serendia Academy, Monica experiences tremendous personal growth. Eventually, the plot involving Duke Clockford and geopolitickal implications is revealed.
As for the anime, it only covers the first part of Monica becoming a student again. It doesn’t reach the serious plotlines yet. Despite that, it succeeds in showing Monica's personal growth, arguably much better than Gotou Hitori, aka Bocchi the Rock, dropping hints here and there of the more serious plot.
With all due respect, this is why I have a love-hate relationship with the moniker 'Bocchi the Witch.' It's an awesome description that one can use if you want fans of Bocchi the Rock to consider watching this anime. Those who loved Bocchi's funny facial expressions and how she tries to overcome her social anxiety will also love Monica, as she displays awkward facial reactions and tries to do the same.
But I am uncomfortable using the Bocchi the Witch moniker for two reasons: 1) I wasn't pleased by how some people treat Bocchi's social anxiety as a laughing matter. Speaking as someone who has social anxiety, it sucks. 2) The light-hearted moments displayed by Monica acting similarly to Bocchi understates the seriousness of the plot down the road. And even before we reach that, framing it as Bocchi the Witch makes people unprepared for the tonal shift, where this anime is not light-hearted all the time. It includes drama and heavy emotions.
Its execution is a mixed bag. The chief director, Kanasaki Takaomi, has done a great job in endearing Monica to anime watchers thanks to his previous work in Konosuba. But he has neglected the worldbuilding aspects and failed to convey much of the same information through different scenes.
I know an anime adaptation can't include everything, especially one that's constrained in a single cour, which is a shame. The author of the light novels has wrought something meticulous in worldbuilding, either through dialogue or foreshadowing. This is watered down in the anime, and it pains me that some people and haters are criticising the writing of this anime just because the intricate narrative structure of the source has been destroyed or at least damaged in the anime adaptation.
One great example I can cite is how Monica handled a life-threatening situation. Without spoiling it, the anime did not provide enough details as to the gravity of the situation, leading to some posters who criticise it as having plot holes. The anime mentions the name of the neighbouring kingdoms, but it underemphasizes the geopolitickal implications of what Monica does.
It would have been better if, instead of adapting 3 volumes in a cour, the anime had chosen to either 1) adapt only two volumes, or 2) adapt three or four volumes in a two-cour season.
I know one should be thankful that the adaptation of the Silent Witch is better than many adaptations. I acknowledge that. It's just sad that this anime hasn't shown the full potential of the story. It's one of those stories that I believe should have been given the Apothecary Diaries treatment, i.e., give each volume time to breathe by including as many episodes as possible. Slow burn is the way to go, so that the plot will reveal itself from all the hints, foreshadowing, and worldbuilding.
As for potential romance and shipping, I don't mind it, but I also don't look forward to it. They are there to spice things up.
A change from the light novels is that the director appears to be biased to the Monica-Prince Felix pairing and ignores the Monica-Cyril pairing. The light novels are more balanced. The Monica-Cyril pairing has more chemistry, and there are several situations showing how they care for each other, situations that are omitted or minimised in the anime. It's a shame, even if I'm more in favour of the Monica-Prince Felix pairing.
I'm partial to Prince Felix because he comes across as mysterious, and there's more to him than meets the eye. (From the spoilers I've seen, I was right to suspect that!)
In fairness to the anime, it did foreshadow something that's gonna be revealed in the volumes that are untranslated as of the date I am posting this review. It's not possible to do so in the written medium of the LN, but it is possible in the visual medium of anime.
Excerpt from Chapter 2 of LN 1:
Spoiler, click to view
Louis pushed his monocle up with a fingertip and heaved a sigh. “First, try to get at least this into your head. In Ridill, the noble ranks are, from highest to lowest, duke, then marquess, then count, then viscount, then baron. There are other ranks below that for the lesser nobility, but I’ll spare you the details. For now, just remember that if you ever meet someone who is a duke or duchess, that means they’re most likely part of the royal bloodline.”Spoiler, click to view
Committing his words to memory, Monica muttered, “C-counts are higher than I expected.” To tell the truth, she’d thought Count was the lowest rank.Spoiler, click to view
Louis’s eyes widened until they couldn’t widen any more, staring at her in disbelief. “…My fellow Sage? You do remember that you have a noble rank yourself, yes?”Spoiler, click to view
The Seven Sages were given a special rank called a “count of magic” that corresponded to a normal count. In other words, Monica was a noble, too.Spoiler, click to view
She was also a rare female titleholder, one of less than ten in the whole kingdom…but for someone who had been shut away in a mountain cabin for two years, she certainly didn’t think of herself as a noble.Also note that another member from the student council, Bridget, has been downgraded to a bit player, whereas she should have been one of the mean girls.
I know anime-only viewers wouldn't find the pacing an issue, and some even complain that it's slow, but knowing how much of the source is omitted, it is quite painful. The pacing is too fast, so that the impact of some scenes is less than it could have been. You can't help but imagine what it would be like if an already excellent adaptation were to be improved and given more episodes to accurately convey all the good stuff the author had in mind.
Despite all these issues, at the very least, the anime has provided enough characterisation of Monica as well as the supporting cast. It could have been better, but it's enough for anyone to conclude that Silent Witch has a roster of great supporting characters.
#Miscellaneous Items
- I love that a serious Monica uses her Kimishima Ayano voice. This role elevated her status among seiyuu.
- Hitsujibungaku's performance in both the OP and ED is decent. Nothing spectacular, but good enough.
- Monica's leitmotif reminds me of Zenshuu in the transformation sequence.
- Its use of mathematics is just elementary arithmetic and geometry. It's not advanced, but for what it's worth, the light novels and, to a certain extent, the anime are effective in using maths as a tool for characterising Monica.
Conclusion
Despite sounding negative in this review about how the adaptation misses the story's true potential and how it could have been better, I still gave this anime a 9 out of 10 [90 out of 100 in anilist] just because I'm a true believer that it's an excellent story.
You can watch this for the great relationships Monica develops and be inspired to overcome social anxiety if you are similarly wired.
The adaptation is great, but I implore everyone who loves this anime to read the source material, as that is even better. You'll be in for a treat.
NOTA BENE: A grade of 9 out of 10 means that I find this anime to be exceptionally great, an almost masterpiece, but it falls short in some aspects. Perhaps it is also other people's 10 out of 10 anime, but it did not capture my heart. I definitely enjoyed watching it.
My enjoyment spectrum lies from 4 to 10. If I have scored an anime below 4, I actively dislike it.